


Your Eyes Are as Blue as the Ocean (And I'm Lost at Sea)

by knich94



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Biologist!Lexa, Dolphin Research, Dolphins, F/F, More tags to be added, Spring Break, artist!Clarke
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-03
Updated: 2018-03-03
Packaged: 2019-03-26 13:08:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13858404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/knich94/pseuds/knich94
Summary: Clarke is on spring break in Polis, a small town on the Florida Gulf Coast known more for its wealthy, elderly population than for its beach parties. Lexa, a biologist at the local aquarium, is less than thrilled with how the influx of vacationers is going to impact her research on ocean wildlife. Their first meeting is, well, a little ugly.





	Your Eyes Are as Blue as the Ocean (And I'm Lost at Sea)

The light blue of the ocean greets Lexa as she steps onto the dock, arms laden with equipment. She takes a moment to take a deep breath of the salty air and feel the heat of the sun on her face before she is receiving a bony elbow jabbed into her back.

“Move it Commander, you’re burning daylight.” Anya, Lexa’s best friend, grumbles as she shoves past Lexa and continues down the dock, dragging a cooler and other equipment towards the white 25-foot center console boat tied up at the end.

            Lexa huffs and follows her friend and colleague. “You were the one I had to drag out of bed this morning. I wanted to be here at sunrise.”

            Luna pops up from where she is seated in the captain’s chair with a light laugh, holding out her arms for Anya to hand her the cooler. “Your sappy ass just wanted to watch the sunrise. You know we have to actually have enough light to see with to actually do our jobs, right?” After handing the cooler to Luna, Anya steps off the dock and into the boat, using the side as a step down. She gives Luna a high five and stows her equipment in the storage compartment.

            Lexa playfully narrows her eyes at the brunette for siding with the blonde. “As if you don’t enjoy a good sunrise just as much as I do.”

            “Not when I’ve got Derrick in my bed.” Luna jests with a smirk.

            Lexa rolls her eyes and tosses a bag filled with towels at her friend, who catches it with a smile. Lexa jumps into the boat, hiding her smirk as the boat’s jostling slightly unsteadies an unsuspecting Anya. Luna, of course, having been raised on the water her entire life, is not even phased and just stows the towels before heading for the controls of the boat.

            While Luna warms up the engine and makes the final safety checks, Anya goes through her own equipment, double checking that she has everything she needs. Lexa turns on her camera, inserts a new memory card, and then starts applying sunscreen to her exposed skin. Despite her green Trikru Aquarium hat, Lexa knows that she’ll be turning it around backwards as soon as she starts taking pictures, so she applies sunscreen to her face, neck, legs and the tops of her feet. Her arms are covered by a long-sleeved green UV top sporting “Dolphin Research Program” on the front pocket, but she has been burned too many times in the past to forgo sunscreen on any exposed skin. Even the tips of her, what Anya calls “freakishly tiny”, ears get a dollop of sunscreen. The rest of the crew, having worked together for years, finish their own final preparations shortly after Lexa.

            “Everyone ready?” Lexa asks, and after receiving confirmatory nods, she heads to the bow of the boat to untie while Anya heads to the stern. With the boat untied, Lexa shoves the bow away from the dock.

            Luna shifts the throttle forward into gear and pilots the boat away from the dock, not even needing to look at the GPS to navigate her way through the seagrass and oyster beds to the deeper waters of the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). Anya sits in the seat next to Luna, wanting to finish her coffee before they catch sight of any dolphins, while Lexa climbs up to the specially reinforced roof of the center console, which allows her to stand directly above Luna’s and Anya’s heads on what they affectionately call “The Tower.”

            The three women had already discussed their plan for the day before departing, so they enjoy the ride from the ICW, which is bordered on the east side by the Florida mainland and the west side by a key, out through New Polis Pass into the Gulf of Mexico.  All three researchers search the crystal blue water for signs of gray, but see nothing other than the swooping of the pelicans and an occasional fish leaping from the water. Even Lexa, with her added height and polarized sunglasses, sees no sign of the mammals. She grabs hold of the safety railing and leans over enough to see Luna’s face.

            “The wind is light and the tide is coming in, want to head south to Big Pass through the Gulf?”

            Luna gives a thumbs up and after giving Lexa a few seconds to grab a firm hold of the safety railing in The Tower, she throttles the engine up until the boat planes out, gliding over the relatively calm water with ease.

            Lexa remains standing with both hands gripping the railing in front of her as the wind blows against her body and her braid whips against her back. Research days were her favorite type of work days. Even though the next day was always guaranteed to have several hours of boring data entry, the opportunity to be in nature was the reason Lexa had become a biologist.

            The ride doesn’t last much more than ten minutes before Luna is turning the boat inland again through the pass. When she hears a shout above her, she pulls the throttle back to idle. Even while the boat is in the process of slowing down Lexa is gracefully swinging herself down from the tower, excitement making her green eyes shine bright.

            “Forty yards at 2 o’clock. At least three.” She calls out as she opens the hard, water-proof case to pull out her Nikon. Anya pulls out test tubes for water samples, a thermometer, a stopwatch, and her clip board, while Luna keeps a lookout for the dolphins.

            “Three adults and a calf, 50 yards out swimming inland, 1 o’clock off the bow.” Luna calls out, carefully nudging the boat in gear to close the distance separating the researchers from their subjects.

            Lexa jogs to the front of the boat, turning her hat backwards and throwing the camera strap around her neck. She lifts it to her eyes and zooms into the area several yards in front of Luna’s last sighting, hoping to catch sight of the dolphins when they next come up for air. Lexa’s experience pays off, as only seconds later three fins break the surface of the water. Lexa presses the shutter and snaps off several photos.

            “Is that your girl?” Anya asks as she drops the temperature probe in the water and waits for it to measure the water temperature.

Lexa pulls the camera away to check the images on the screen, but it’s merely a formality; she’d know that fin anywhere. When she had joined the Trikru Aquarium Dolphin Research Program as a graduate student, she had never thought she would make the small coastal town of Polis her home. On her first dolphin health assessment, they had captured a young female, with Lexa herself pressing freeze brand H3D4 to the smooth fin. After assuring the health of the dolphin, she was released back into the wild sporting a new identification number on her fin. Lexa, however, sported a new passion for these marine mammals which had kept her in the quiet town, the majority of which consisted of retirees.

“Yes, that’s Heda.” Lexa smiles, zooming in on the other fins to identify her favorite dolphin’s companions. “She’s with N2D4, N4N4, and unnamed calf.”

The three women quiet down as they approach the dolphins, Lexa clicking away with her camera as the dolphins start actively chasing a school of fish. Luna is in charge of manning the boat and making sure that they are close enough to observe the dolphin’s behavior while at the same time far enough away not to disturb their natural behavior. She also records their GPS location every 2 minutes to estimate the distance traveled by the dolphins. Lexa, in addition to capturing images of the dolphins, calls out the activity of the dolphin they have chosen to study that day for Anya to record. Anya also collects water samples for further testing at the lab and records other weather information.

Lexa switches her camera from still photo to video mode, sensing that there will be a surge in activity. The dolphins have worked together to trap the school of fish against a sandbar. While the fish swim frantically together in a bait ball, one dolphin darts in to grab a fish while the other dolphins keep the fish from scattering. At other times, they slap the water with their tails to stun a nearby fish, a method known as kerplunking. Despite the fact that she has seen it many times before, Lexa still watches the intelligent and beautiful creatures with joy.

After 30 minutes, the dolphins appear to have eaten their fill and begin moving towards the ICW. A local fisherman driving through the channel waves to the researchers as he stays far enough away to not disturb the animals. However, the dolphins don’t see his waves as a disturbance and instead dart over to his wake, surfing and jumping in the waves he leaves behind. The women laugh as they spot the young calf uncoordinatedly attempting a leap through the air.

The idyllic moment is broken as a boat speeds towards the group, music blasting over the roar of the engine. A bikini clad figure on the boat points at the fin disappearing under the water and the boat slows down but continues to approach the animals. As it passes over the stretch of water the dolphins had just disappeared under, college aged men and women gather around the sides looking for the dolphins.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Anya growls at the people who had completely destroyed the peaceful conditions they had been able to observe the dolphins in.

Lexa remains quiet but concurs with her friend’s observation. Instead, she climbs up The Tower, scanning the blue water for fins. After a moment, Anya calls out from the stern. “They’re heading out the pass and into the Gulf, 100 yards out.”

Luna turns the boat around and speeds up, not wanting to lose their subjects. The other boat, music now turned all the way down, has also caught sight of the dolphins and has increased its speed to approach them. The two boats head out of the pass, but while the Trikru employees direct their boat to the side of the dolphin group, the other boat follows directly behind them speeding up to within 30 feet of the group practically chasing them into the Gulf.

Lexa is so angry that she angrily jerks the camera strap off her neck. She carefully sets her camera down on the seat next to Luna as she growls out “Pull alongside them.”

Luna obeys without a word; it’s times like these that Lexa had earned her “Commander” nickname. Anya doesn’t even bother to hide her smirk, relishing the confrontation that is to come.

As soon as Lexa feels they are close enough, she yells out, “What the hell are you doing?”

The blonde captaining the other boat jumps, startled at the angry tone of this woman, and instinctively shifts the boat into idle. “What?”

Luna throttles down as well, letting the two boats drift alongside each other.  

“What the hell are you doing harassing these dolphins?” Lexa growls, unafraid the shirtless man staring daggers at her.

“We weren’t harassing them! We just wanted to see them up close.” The blonde defends, stepping away from the wheel so she can face Lexa.

Anya saunters over next to Lexa. She leans against the center console and unsheathes her dive knife, running it under her fingernails as if she is cleaning the dirt out from under them.  If Lexa weren’t so angry about these co-eds chasing away her dolphins, she would have rolled her eyes at how _extra_ Anya was being. “At that distance, it qualifies as harassment. You’re supposed to be at least 50 yards away.”

Anya chooses this moment to pipe up. “To put it in terms you can understand, fifty yards is half a football field. Did you ever actually watch a football game, or just stand on the sidelines waving your pom poms, Blondie?”

The blonde looks as if she wants to jump across the distance separating the boats and punch Anya in the face, but the curly haired boy grabs her hand in an attempt to calm her.

“Well you were within 50 yards of them! Besides, what gives you the right to tell us what to do?” A short brunette, who looks related to the man, protests, anger evident in her eyes.

“We have special research permits.” Lexa fires back, holding out one hand to indicate the “Trikru Aquarium” written on the side of the boat in black letters.

            After a moment of silence when none of the students can think of a retort, the blonde finally speaks up. “Look, we’re sorry, OK? We didn’t know we were doing anything wrong. We’re just trying to enjoy our Spring Break.”

            Before Lexa or Anya can make another aggressive comment, Luna grabs onto their shoulders and gives them gentle squeezes as she lectures the young adults. “You should not be captaining a boat if you do not know maritime laws, not only for your safety but for the safety of other boaters and the sea creatures whose home we trespass on. The ocean is vast and untamable, and we can only aspire to learn a portion of its greatness by studying those living things who themselves have mastered a life in this environment. If we can learn to live in harmony like the creatures of the sea, true peace shall come to our world.”

            Both groups go silent as they stare at Luna, who is gazing off into the distant ocean with what Lexa and Anya recognize as the same look of love she has when looking at her boyfriend Derrick.

            “Ooooookay…” The dark-skinned brunette draws out, still slightly intimidated by this strange woman even though she had been preaching about peace only seconds ago.

            With Luna staring off into the distance, Anya shooting daggers at the other boat, and the students still staring them down with a mixture of distrust and confusion, Lexa decides to salvage whatever win she can from this confrontation. She ducks out from Luna’s grip on her shoulder and takes the wheel. “If I see you harassing any more wildlife, I won’t hesitate to take action. Attack them and you attack me.” With one last glare, she throttles forward and pulls away, off to see if she can catch up to Heda and salvage the rest of her research day.

**Author's Note:**

> Soooooo I know I have two stories in progress and I will be getting back to those BUT I wanted to write for Clexa Week, especially on this day :( I intended to post this for Day 1 Meet Ugly but obviously that didn't happen... And I wanted to post something for Clexa Week even if this story isn't completely finished so stay tuned for more to come!


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